Aligning a Symbol with a Character

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit aligns a symbol with an associated character, the program comprising sets of instructions for: projecting a set of lines from a first plurality of points on the character along a slope of the character; identifying a second plurality of points on the projected lines along a top of the character; generating an alignment shape surrounding the character based on the identified second plurality of points, the alignment shape comprising a plurality of sides; and aligning the associated symbol with the character along one of the plurality of sides of the alignment shape.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the character comprises an angled typeface.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the angled typeface is one of an italics typeface and an oblique typeface.

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the angled typeface defines a character slant orientation.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the generated alignment shape is a shape substantially surrounding the character.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions for generating the alignment shape comprises sets of instructions for: identifying a third plurality of points on the projected lines along a bottom of the character; and connecting at least one point in the second plurality of points and one point in the third plurality of points in generating the alignment shape.

7. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit aligns a symbol with an associated character, the program comprising sets of instructions for: identifying an italic slant of a character; projecting a set of lines from a first plurality of points on the character along the italic slant of the character; identifying a second plurality of points on the projected lines along a top of the character; generating an alignment shape surrounding the character based on the identified second plurality of points, the alignment shape comprising a plurality of sides; and aligning the symbol associated with the character along one of the plurality of sides of the alignment shape.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying the italic slant of the character comprises a set of instructions for calculating an angle at which the character is oriented.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the set of instructions for calculating the angle comprises a set of instructions for determining a slope between at least two points of the character.

10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the set of instructions for determining the slope comprises sets of instructions for: identifying a position, in a coordinate system associated with the character, of a first point of the character; identifying a position, in the coordinate system, of a second point of the character; and computing the slope based on the positions of the first and second points.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the set of instructions for generating the alignment shape comprises a set of instructions for using the italic slant in a coordinate system of the character to identify the second plurality of points.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the second plurality of points comprises a first point at a top of the character that is determined by projecting a first vector along the italic slant from a left most point of the character to the top of the character, wherein the second plurality of points comprises a second point at the top of the character that is determined by projecting a second vector along the italic slant from a right-most point of the character to the top of the character.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the set of instructions for generating the alignment shape further comprises a set of instructions for connecting the first and second points in the second plurality of points to form the alignment shape around the character.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the alignment shape specifies a position within a portion of the generated shape at which to align an accent mark.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the position is a midpoint of the portion at which to align the accent mark.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for identifying an override property associated with the character, wherein the set of instructions for generating the alignment shape comprises sets of instructions for: identifying a position at which to align the symbol based on the override property; and setting the identified position as a property of the generated alignment shape.

17. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a content processing application, the content processing application comprising: an alignment shape generator for: projecting a set of lines from a first plurality of points on a character along a slope of the character; identifying a second plurality of points on the projected lines along a top of the character; generating an alignment shape surrounding the character based on the identified second plurality of points, the alignment shape comprising a plurality of sides; and a symbol aligner for aligning an associated symbol with the character along one of the plurality of sides of the alignment shape.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the alignment shape generator is further for identifying an italic slant of the character, said italic slant used to generate the alignment shape.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the symbol aligner is further for retrieving a position definition for aligning the symbol with the character, wherein the symbol aligner aligns the symbol with the character by placing the symbol at a position of the alignment shape based on the position definition.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the content processing application further comprises a content editor comprising a text editor for receiving user-entered text data and a math editor for receiving user-entered equation data the text data and the equation data for generating said character and the associated symbol.